The present invention relates to a stitchbonded material (e.g., a stitchbonded nonwoven fabric) that is breathable (has air permeability) and stretchable and does not have holes at the location of the stitches, and a method of making such material. More particularly, the present invention relates to such nonwoven material, including stitchbonded composite nonwoven materials, having stretchability and breathability, and which is useful for wearing apparel and other textile uses such as draperies and other home furnishings, the material having desired surface configurations and being resistant to creasing.
Fabrics having a base layer, or a plurality of layers, e.g., of nonwoven material, the layer(s) being stitchbonded with yarn, are well known in the art. For example, base layers of loose materials such as matting, an array of loose filling threads, or a layer of wadding, may be stitchbonded (that is, bound or enmeshed with the loops of a multitude of chain-stitched warp threads), to provide a fabric having coherence, tensile strength and durability.
For some time, those in the art have been attempting to provide stitchbonded nonwoven material, having desirable surface characteristics, useful as fabric in wearing apparel and other textile uses. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,918 to Hughes discloses a simulated nonwoven corduroy fabric, obtained by stitching through a nonwoven batt with a special kind of machine that produces a ribbed construction in the batt, this stitched batt containing closely spaced apart parallel rows of chain stitches that penetrate through the batt and form parallel spaced solid ribs of fibers between the rows of stitches on the obverse side of the batt. This patent discloses that on the reverse side of the batt there are two sets of stitches, (1) diagonally extending stitch portions of one of the yarns that interconnect the parallel chains, and (2) straight line stitch portions of the other yarn. The stitching operation causes raised parallel ribs of uncompressed fibers of the fibrous batt to be formed on the obverse side of the fibrous batt, between the parallel rows of double yarn chain stitches, with the uncompressed fibers of the ribs on the obverse side being processed to produce a soft corded surface effect simulating that of conventional woven corduroy fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,428 to Hughes discloses a stitched, composite, integrated, multilayer, nonwoven fabric, including a ribbed surface on one face. thereof to provide a bedspread appearance thereon or a corduroy appearance when used as a garment, the fabric comprising a supporting layer of a three-dimensional batt of self-bonding fibers, preferably heat-reactive, synthetic organic fibers, extending in random directions throughout the batt and being bonded to each other at the crossing points of the fibers; the fabric further comprising upper and lower three-dimensional, self-sustaining facing layers of nonwoven textile fibers superimposed on opposite sides of and contiguous with the supporting layer to completely cover the supporting layer and to form the fabric. This patent discloses that the fabric further includes elongate, spaced apart rows of stitches penetrating the superimposed layers for stitchbonding together the individual fibers of each of the upper and lower facing layers and for stitchbonding together the superimposed layer to form the composite, integrated, multilayer fabric, the rows of stitches extending, in general, in the lengthwise direction throughout the length of the fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,933 to Carey discloses stitch-bonded thermal insulating fabrics, useful in apparel, particularly for innerwear and sleepwear, blankets, bed spreads, etc., the fabric being a stitchbonded, fibrous, nonwoven web of microfibers that average about 10 micrometers or less in diameter, the web preferably having a thermal resistance of at least about 0.035 k.m.sup.2 /watt, air permeability of less than 1 m.sup.3 /sec/m.sup.2, and tensile strength in the machine direction of at least about 15 Kg and tensile strength in the transverse direction of at least about 10 Kg, the microfibers being formed, e.g., by extruding a liquid fiber-forming material through an orifice into a high-velocity gaseous stream.
British Pat. Document No. 1,425,088 discloses a multilayer stitch-knitted fabric, including a supporting elastomeric foam layer having on one face thereof a fibrous web and on the other face a continuous fibrous layer, formed by needling fibers of the web through the supporting elastomeric foam layer, the multilayer fabric being stitchbonded by using one or more warp knitted systems of binding threads, the binding threads forming stitch wales on the other face of the stitchbonded fabric and exposed portions of wale-connecting loops on the one face of the stitchbonded fabric, imparting a quilted effect thereto. While this British patent describes disadvantages of prior bonded nonwoven fabrics utilizing a supporting elastomeric foam layer, including reduced air permeability, this patent maintains use of an elastomeric foam layer as a support, providing a different technique for mechanically bonding nonwoven textile layers to the elastomeric foam layer.
As seen in the foregoing, attempts have been made to provide stitchbonded fabrics; however, the fabrics have not been entirely satisfactory with respect to, e.g., stretchability and air permeability; moreover, the problem of unsightly holes in the formed product, which holes form due to the stitchbonding needles passing through the webs during the stitchbonding, has not been satisfactorily solved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,802 to Morman discloses a composite nonwoven elastic web composed of a nonwoven elastic web joined to a fibrous nonwoven gathered web. Such composite, in its relaxed, non-stretched state, is composed of a gathered fibrous web joined to a nonwoven elastic web, with the nonwoven elastic web having been relaxed from a stretched, biased length to a relaxed, unbiased, non-stretched length so as to gather the fibrous nonwoven gathered web. The composite can be formed by forming a fibrous nonwoven gatherable web directly onto a surface of the nonwoven elastic web while the nonwoven elastic web is maintained in a stretched, biased and elongated condition. The joining of the fibrous nonwoven gatherable web to the nonwoven elastic web is achieved by heat-bonding to fuse the two webs to each other; by sonic bonding techniques; by entanglement of the individual fibers of the fibrous nonwoven gatherable web with the nonwoven elastic web; or by utilizing a tacky elastic material for the nonwoven elastic web. This patent further discloses that the nonwoven elastic web may be formed by, for example, a meltblowing process, the resulting product being a web of meltblown microfibers formed of an elastomeric material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,418 to Simon discloses a leak resistant seam construction for recreational and other fabrics requiring water-resistant or waterproof properties, the stitched seam including two overlapping layers with a highly resilient, non-tacky elastomeric material tape or strip therebetween, the stitching taking place through the overlapping layers and the elastomeric tape or strip. This patent discloses that through selection of the highly resilient tape properties, the needle apertures, which form during the stitching, are substantially closed and sealed around the thread, thus greatly reducing the tendency to leak through the needle a This patent discloses that the seam structure, when employed with nonwoven fabrics, is highly effective in reducing the tendency to leak and exhibits much improved hydrohead test results. This patent further discloses that the seaming is extremely useful for recreational fabrics intended for the construction of tents, boat and trailer covers, tarpaulins and the like.
While the above-discussed documents disclose products and processes which exhibit some of the characteristics or method steps of the present invention, none of them discloses or implies the presently claimed process, or the product of the present invention. In particular, these documents do not address or solve the problems addressed in the present invention (that is, providing a stitchbonded fabric that avoids unsightly holes caused by the needles in the stitchbonding process while providing a breathable, stretchable, non-creasable fabric, having desired surface configurations.